A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream, my first thoughts?

"Ah."

So maybe im a bit of a shakespeare newbie. Of course, i've gone through the highschool requrements, but writing an essay on Romeo & Juliet requred reading only one act and watching the movie. To be honest, the idea of a reading an entire play inspired just a teensy bit of trepidation, but if you want to know the truth... I loved it!

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy written by Shakespeare supposedly for a wedding Elizabeth I attended as a guest of honour, therefore it is romantic, lighthearted and contains the odd nod of the head to the virgin queen.

Within the play there are several storiers going on at once, which made me glad i read the introduction first! The play is starts just before the wedding of two nobles (Hippolyta and Thesus) and covers the stories of several groups of characters involved. There are the lovers, four young nobles who are connected in various ways (Hermia loves Lysander yet her father wants her to marry Demetrius, who supposedly loves her too, while Helena loves him), then there is a group of workmen who are staging a play for the happy couple, (which supposedly happened a lot in those days), these are quite entertaining to read about, then there are also The Fairies, where the fairy lord (Oberon) is trying to take a young pageboy off his queen (Titania), who refuses. Oberon then makes a bit of a mess of things by putting some sort of spell over Titania, and ordering one of his fairies to do the same to some of the lovers.

I thought before reading this that i would understand none of the language, but was pleasantly suprised, as it pretty much makes sense as you go along. I read the Oxford School version, which had lots of introduction parts (which i read the start of) and then it has some words picked out and explained, which helps in some places because there are a lot of refrences to mythology and stuff (I think the play is set in Athens), but is annoying sometimes because it explains some pretty obvious ones, yet sometimes there were combinations of words that i would have liked to check i understood properly, but there wasn't really anthing about them. If you're pretty new to Shakespeare and this slightly more archaeic style of writing then i'd recoment something like this, if only for the explanation at the begining, i found it helped having the annotations there, but was able to ignore them for most of it.

The language the play is written in is fantastic, i've always done a bit of a mental eye roll upon hearing other people say that, but its true, i think that without even understanding it you'd still be able to find enjoyment in the way the words roll and sound, which is quite beautiful. It is also very relaxing (which helps, as i read it before bed) not having read much other shakespeare theres not really much i can say to compare them, but i think this is probably a nice one to start on, its not too serious or depressing like some of the tragedies and is quite short (only 5 acts long, 9 scenes in total), so it doesnt feel like you have to wade through lots of heavy bits. The writing slips between poetry and prose, which is also quite nice.

To conclude a rather round-about review, i thought this was very good, it read nicely and i found myself wanting to go on (you always know you're onto something good when you get that book itch), it was also accessible language-wise, which helps (a lot) and left me interested in reading more of his stuff, (also good. im thinking of perhaps a bit of the old 'hubble bubble' next?).

im afraid i may have to re-write this later, but for now im just going to say that im very glad i joined this once upon a time challenge, if only because it got me to read this and openes up a whole new genre (if you'd call it that) to me...plays? who'd have thought? so thankyou very much :) i have only two days of the challenge, and three of the other books i said i'd read to go, so probably won't finish on time, but i've definitely got something out of this, which hopefully is enough, and theres always next year. good fun :)

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I am also counting this book towards my classics challenge, although i was hoping to read all 6 Jane Austens that may no longer be achievable, therefore, for the time being i am including this and gone with the wind (both read during the challenge's open-time) as part of my six unless i read enough other books to count instead.

Beauty by Robin McKinley

Beauty is a retelling of the Fairy Tale Beauty and the Beast, which I've read for my once upon a time challenge, and also because i wanted to :P

In this version there are some differences to the famous fairy tale; Beauty is one of three sisters, and was initially named 'honour' by her mother, but nicknamed Beauty when she was young, after claiming that honour was a boring name. Her sisters Hope and Grace are both gorgeous, but beauty is comparatively plain. She likes to read books and ride her gigantic horse known as Greatheart. When her father's shipping business goes under they are all forced to move inland to the countryside and set themselves up in a blacksmith's cottage by the woodlands, but there are eery tales wispered about the woods being haunted and of there being a terrible monster residing inside. Beauty's father at one point finds himself in this dark forrest, where he is caught picking a rose for Beauty in the garden. The beast lets him go only on the condition that he will bring back one of his daughters to stay with him forever. Thinking that she would be the least missed, Beauty offers to go and here our story starts...

This is a lovely re-telling of whats probably my favourite fairy tale and its interesting reading about Beauty and Beast growing closer together, and was an soothing way to spend an afternoon. Although the story is shelved under young adult, it is accessible to all ages, probably because its just so damned nice! Thankfully it isn't condescending in the way some YA storys are, and you find yourself growing to love the beast. The characters are generally well developed and i could go on but its just genuinely nice, with some new ideas thrown into the old, well-worn fairy tale we all know and love. As always at the end of this fairytale i was left feeling happy that it was all 'dreams come true' and yet sad that the beast was gone, as its always hard to come to terms with the beast being human when you kind of grow attatched to him in his hairy form, i dont know about other people but i always feel a little put-down by the overly-perfect happy endings, in the same way i get turned off by books about love at first sight.

Anyway, enough ramblings! This is a good book and one that i recomend anyone that anyone vaguely interested in this kind of thing reads. It is my first of Mckinley's but i hear that her other works are highly praised as well and Outlaws of Sherwood should be on the way from amazon as we speak...

Persuasion - Jane Austen

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel and was published after her death in 1818. Persuasion follows the story of Anne Elliot, who was persuaded out of an engagement to a poor but ambitious naval officer by her family and close friend who feared the inferiour connections. However, a recent war has enabled him [captain wentworth] to amass a considerable fortune and he has become incredibly successful. This story is about his return into her life, where he seems not to have forgiven her, yet she is still in love with him.

This is the first Jane Austen novel that i have finished (i have been halfway through pride and predudice for sometime), I really enjoyed it, although found it a little slow going with the ye olde language bits and to begin with had to keep going back and reading over bits, but thats probably because im young and unused to it. I thought that the characters were all nice to read about - JA has a way of getting you to enjoy reading about the rediculous and status-obsessed characters in her books (such as anne's sister mary), rather than getting annoyed with them. I also found it interesting reading and learning about the way these people lived in their times and the way they treated each other. It can be a bit of an eye-opener for someone brought up in modern society with virtually equal womens rights and not much of this 'decurum'.

The family relations in the novel are also quite interesting - Anne is i think the second of three daughters, with her 'foolish, spendthrift, baronet' father overlooking her and focusing his attentions upon his eldest daughter Elizabeth because she looked more like him and was still beautiful, unlike anne who had passed her 'bloom' and closer resembled her mother. He saw Anne as a nobody and his other daughter Mary didnt hold much value to him, having been married off to charles musgrove, who was their version of 'alright'. The family finds themself in financial straits and so lease out the house to admiral croft, who also happens to be the husband of the sister of captain wentworth (the guy anne had had an 'understanding' with). This throws their lives together once more.

All in all an enjoyable read, which i cant really find any faults with. I think quite a lot of people enjoy reading persuasion, despite it not being as popular as pride and predudice and sense and sensibility. For anyone who likes Jane Austen but who hasnt read it yet then i'd say give it a go, and for anyone who has seen the film but not read the book; although quite similar its not entirely faithful to the text. Persuasion didnt particularly grab me, as was able to read other books at the same time, but I wouldnt be suprised to see myself re-reading this in a few years, once i've got a few others under my belt.

A-Z Challenge

Every day i keep finding more of these and can't resist. But this is the last. :|:|

Hosted by Becky ( think i might finally have figured that linking thing out) and requires you to read one book for every letter of the alphabet, with several different options for going about it. I am going to be my usual overly ambitious self and try Option C - one list for titles, one list for authors, but im going to cheat and backlog to when the challenge started (Jan 1st) not entirely sure when it ends though....
Ah well, wish me luck :)

Once Upon a Time III

Okay, so i couldn't resist joining another challenge, it appears that once upon a time is a major favourite came to my attention. It is hosted by Carl and offers a range of different quests. I have chosen 'Quest the Second' teemed (hopefully) with 'Quest the Third'. Quest the second requires four books to be read, one from each of the following categories:

*Mythology
*Folk lore
*Fantasy
*Fairy Tale

I think it might be harder choosing books for each categories than actually reading them, but they are genres i enjoy, so it should be fun :) Quest the third ties in with in with Quest the Second but involves either reading or going to see a performance of A midsummer nights dream. That part is also likely to be a challenge, as i havent read any Shakespeare beyond what was required of us at high school and a few sonnets, but hopefully it will be fun :> wa-hey to new experiences!

My pool of ideas is posted on the left under the appropriate logo, but still not sure about a few of them. Hopefully once i start reading i will find it easier to define the categories to put things in, but i guess quite a few books cover moore than one. Folklore and mythology have been particularly tricky for me to think of, as i havent read much of either, but am going to have a look at the library tomorrow and see what i see. For folk lore i keep going back to robin hood and ghost stories, so probably need to think more outside the box. I've been looking at other people's ideas and charles de lint seems quite poplular, so may sample some of his work too. Its all rather exciting, and am looking forward to trying new things.

P.S. Apologies for any excessive italic-ing and use of bold, i am like a child with a new toy now i've discovered it. Having to keep going back and fixing my blog-ignorant mistakes.

The Classics Challenge:

Hosted by Trish.

I have chosen to attempt the 'Classics Feast' and try to read 6 classics and one bonus book (one that should/will become a classic) between 1st April and 31st October 2009. Apparently its classics by our own definition, so modern classics included. I'm not entirely certain of my choices yet, and am changing them as i go along (and updating this post), I have got as far as:

1. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell (Finished april-may)
   
2. Pride & Predudice - Jane Austen (Fin 18th Sept)
   
3. Persuasion - Jane Austen (fin April 20th)
   
4. Animal Farm - George Orwell (Finished September sometime)
   
5. To Kill a mockingbird - Harper lee (didn't finish in time)
   
6. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare (Fin 18th June)
   
7. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (Finished september sometime)
   

As you can see this is all a little undecided, i'm also considering options such as Dr.Jekyl and Mr Hyde by R.L.Stevenson, Emma by Jane Austen, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and a number of others. The list above, and the one to the side of my blog will probably change frequently, so apoligies for that. (02/07/09)

If anybody has any suggestions or ideas they would be very helpful and most welcome as i am new to this whole thing and a little uncertain. Are there any classic books that are particularly good for getting started on and not too intimidating? Despite my mother's encouragement i still think Dickins is beyond me...